


Coke and Mentos

by Morcai



Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Enjolras and Grantaire are roommates, M/M, gratuitous xkcd references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-14
Updated: 2013-08-14
Packaged: 2017-12-23 12:04:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/926187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morcai/pseuds/Morcai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Grantaire is bored and Enjolras is one of the day's lucky ten thousand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coke and Mentos

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this](http://xkcd.com/1053/) xkcd strip.

Grantaire was bored.

This much was obvious by the way that he was currently hanging off his bed, attempting to sketch a battle scene he had set up on the floor, which involved more plastic dinosaurs than Enjolras would have thought were possible to acquire in a college dorm, a plush version of some character Grantaire liked and approximately half a dozen of the wooden posable figurines that Grantaire had stolen from the art department because he hated the professor that taught one of the lower level drawing classes.

Enjolras wasn’t quite sure how that enmity started, although it was clearly mutual. Grantaire had never had a class with Professor Tholomyes as far as he knew, although he did have a vague memory of Courfeyrac, Marius and Grantaire conspiring about something in low, angry tones earlier that year. 

Ignoring Grantaire was becoming increasingly difficult, both because his shirt was riding up to reveal some truly magnificent abdominals and because Grantaire insisted on narrating some inane story about the battle scene that filled much of the free floorspace in their room. This was bothersome, because Enjolras would really like to be able to finish his letter to the head of campus security, Javert, about how kicking the ABC Society out of their usual meeting place in the Commons was both unfair and directly counter to the regulations Javert professed to upholding.

"—and then General Katz found, in the archives of the old internet, a grand plan for how to save her prehistoric soldiers from the depredations of the fearsome wooden mannequins that had been sent by alien invaders from beyond the stars!" There was a brief pause, filled by the sound of pencil scratching across paper, and then Grantaire continued. "A mere joke, it had been in the years of it’s realization, but perhaps, just perhaps, the mythical chemical reaction caused by the addition of the long ago candy called Mentos to a bottle of that famed beverage, Diet Coke, would be enough to drive the invaders from her planet. It would require much fortitude, and finding the proper recipe for those famed Mentos would be difficult, but General Katz had once tried to Help Save Will Graham, and was no stranger to difficult tasks. And so she embarked on a grand quest to find the Last Mentos Wrapper, in order to read the ingredients list—"

Enjolras had listened enough.

"What," he asked, the word carefully enunciated, "are you babbling on about?"

Grantaire moved his sketchbook from where it was covering his face and looked up. His face was a rather alarming shade of red, probably due to the fact he’d been hanging upside down for the better part of an hour, with only a few short breaks to re-position this or that member of the scene he was sketching.

"The epic battle between the dinosaur forces of General Katz and the alien invaders sent by the evil empire ruled by Darth Tholomyes?" He replied, quizzical.

"No, not that," Enjolras dismissed. "I’ve been hearing that for the last hour. What was the thing about Mentos and Coke?"

Grantaire’s eyes widened quickly and with a single, quick motion he was suddenly upright on his bed, legs crossed and eyes wide. “Has no one ever shown you that?”

"Shown me what?"

"Man, I thought everyone had done that or seen a video of it by the time they reached college."

Enjolras looked away from where Grantaire was sitting, shocked. He could feel a blush beginning to fan across his cheeks and he shook his head slightly. “Never mind. I’ll find out later.”

"No, no, I didn’t mean to sound like that!" Grantaire said, jumping off the bed and carelessly destroying his painstaking work setting up the strange battle scene. "Come on, lets go to the commons, the vending machines should have what we need."

"No, seriously, Grantaire, I’ll look it up once I finish this letter."

Grantaire shook his head and grabbed Enjolras by the wrist. “Come on, Apollo, you’re one of today’s lucky ten thousand and I’m not missing out on this.”

"What are you even talking about?" Enjolras asked, but allowed Grantaire to drag him out of their room. His roommate was impossible to dissuade when he got into these moods, and it was nice to see him so animated.

By the time they’d bought a plain pack of mint Mentos and a two litre bottle of Diet Coke, Grantaire had not only managed to convince Enjolras that this was definitely an appropriate way to waste half an hour of free time, but had also explained that there was a supervolcano under Yellowstone that was still active enough to cause earthquakes and could potentially erupt and cause a volcanic winter that would kill half the world’s population.

Enjolras never dreamed that his roommate knew so much about such an odd topic.

With Coke and Mentos in one hand, the other still wrapped around Enjolras’ wrist, Grantaire began to scour the quad for a flat place to put down the bottle.

Eventually he found one, and cracked it open, shoving the bottle cap into his pocket. Letting go of Enjolras’ wrist, Grantaire shoved him back a little ways. “This is going to get a bit messy, so you’re going to want to stand about five feet away. I’m not sure how far it’ll reach.” Grantaire was grinning, his eyes lit up with mischief.

Enjolras stepped back and watched as the Mentos were unwrapped and then the pack was quickly dumped into the bottle before Grantaire scrambled away. It only took a second before a geyser of brown foam erupted from the bottle, shooting up into the air.

It took nearly a minute before the bottle stopped erupting.

When it was done, Enjolras looked at Grantaire, who was still grinning, and couldn’t help but grin back.

"That was _amazing_ ,” he said.

"I know, totally worth taking half an hour from writing that outraged letter, right?"

"Definitely."

All of the sudden, a shout echoes across the quad, and Grantaire’s head flew up. “Shit, Javert,” he said. “Time to go.”

Enjolras barely had time to process what had been said before Grantaire had laced their fingers together and was dragging him away at a dead run.They probably wouldn’t have gotten in trouble even if Javert had caught them, Enjolras noted idly as Grantaire led them back to the dorm, but where was the fun in being caught?

Eventually, they reached the doors, where Grantaire quickly pulled out his ID card, gaining them access to the building with a single quick swipe. They tumbled into the entryway, where they stood for a moment, panting, before their eyes met and they both burst into laughter.

"Incredible," Enjolras managed to gasp out, and he wasn’t certain if he meant their panicked dash across the quad or the experience of seeing what happened when you added Mentos to a bottle of coke.

Grantaire gave a little bow, the corner of his lips twitching. It was a peculiarly Grantaire expression, to smile more with one corner of his mouth than with the other.

Later he would blame it on the adrenaline rush from escaping Javert, but in that moment, all Enjolras could think was that he and Grantaire were still holding hands, and that Grantaire was entirely too handsome with his hair a mess and his eyes alight with laughter.

Leaning up to press his lips against Grantaire’s was the only logical thing to do, when he looked that good.

**Author's Note:**

> I can be found on [tumblr](eidolon-nebula.tumblr.com)


End file.
